I want to take this opportunity to thank all of those who have been praying for me. The Lord has been working through my circumstances in so many ways, time will not permit me to describe them at this juncture.

My blood pressure has been improving. I’m still having some problems with swelling in my leg, however, that is related to congestive heart failure.

Additionally, I was attempting to have a date night with my wife last Friday night when I tripped over a curb in an unlit portion of a mall parking lot. I fell, managing to dislocate my left shoulder and damage the rotator cuff in the process. My orthopedist outlined a plan of action today that we both hope will allow me to avoid surgery. Pleas pray that this plan will be successful.

In the meantime, life goes on. I am becoming a little more proficient at typing with one hand, God has been blessing our church in a wonderful way and I am closer to my wife than I have ever been.

Also, my latest article is up at Baptist Press Sports. I invite you to check it out and let me know what you think.

I appreciate the prayers and e-mails I have been receiving from so many of you. It is a wonderful encouragement and I am thankful to say I have seen much improvement in my health. I am still not back to 100% yet, but I am a lot closer than I was.

This song has been a special source of encouragement to me over the past few weeks. I want to share it with you and hopfully it will bless you as it has me.

I just wanted to post an update on my situation. There has been a good bit of improvement. I am not yet where I need to be with my blood pressure, but it is a lot better than it was a couple of weeks ago. I go back to the doctor on Wednesday for another evaluation.

Over the last three or four days I have been feeling a little better. Maybe my body is getting accustomed to the medicine. I sure hope so.

I really appreciate the prayers. There is no doubt they have helped and it is such a blessing to have friends who will call out your name to God. Please continue to pray for me.

I hope all of you had a very merry Christmas and are enjoying this gift of a new year that God has so graciously given us.

I wanted to share with you what has been happening in my life over the past couple of weeks. I do not do this for pity or sympathy, but first of all to say that God is good, and secondly to ask for your prayers.

On Christmas Eve, as my wife and I were preparing to attend a candlelight service at her parent’s church in Palatka, FL, my lungs suddenly began to fill rapidly with blood and fluid. I couldn’t get my breath and experienced a severe attack of anxiety. This lasted for about ten minutes and then it cleared up as quickly as it started. It is the opinion of doctors that I suffered a pulmonary embolism or blood clot.

During the medical followup, I was found to have an infection in my lower right leg (of unknown origin) that was causing my leg to swell to over twice its normal size. Additionally, my blood pressure was sky-high requiring me to go on medication.

After a battery of tests, bloodwork and x-rays, it seems that I don’t have any more clots (praise the Lord). Antibiotics and rest have helped my leg tremendously. We are still trying to get the blood pressure meds balanced out. Anyone who has ever gone through that knows how it makes you feel.

So this is why I haven’t been around the old blog block the last few days, it certainly isn’t because I haven’t been interested in seeing what my friends had to say, I just haven’t had the energy. Please keep me in your prayers that I will be able to get around again soon like I want.

During these days I have found much for which to be thankful. The gift of life itself has become so much more precious, I don’t think I have ever appreciated a Christmas more than this last one. The outpouring of love from my physical and church family has been amazing, I am truly blessed. Most of all, I thank God for my wife who has taken so much better care of me than any nurse would. Amy, I love you a bunch.

Posting has been a little slow lately (you noticed that, didn’t you?). With the activities of the holidays I haven’t had much time to put coherent thoughts together, but I do want to wish all of you the merriest of Christmases. I hope that your time is filled with love, laughter and the blessings of hope, peace and joy. This video is reaching back a few years but the song is a great one. Enjoy it and look for renewed posting after the holidays.

For the last three days, my family and I have been in attendance at the Georgia Baptist Convention. This year it was held at First Baptist Church of Jonesboro.

I wish to commend those who planned this year’s meeting. The spirit was absolutely phenomenal, much more so than one would normally expect at a business meeting. While much important business was dealt with, the emphasis seemed to be on refocusing on Christ. The music was the best it has ever been and the preaching was outstanding.

I also would like to congratulate my dad on being elected as one of our vice-presidents. This is a well-deserved honor and I know he will serve our convention well in this new opportunity that God has opened.

Long-time readers of this blog might have the opinion that I am prejudiced against squirrels. While I have written about previous confrontations with the pesky varmints cute little critters, I firmly believe there is a place for them in this world: right next to the mashed potatoes and gravy.

Occasionally, we outdoorsmen are accused of exaggeration. Some question the accuracy of our measurements or the veracity of our reports. Some would say it is impossible for a fish to be so big that the level of the lake drops three inches when he is taken out. Some would say that a buck with a rack that looks like a rocking chair on his head is beyond the realm of plausibility. They might, and I emphasize MIGHT, have a point, but I assure you that what I am about to tell you is the pure, unadulterated truth. I will not blame the reader for skepticism. Had I not witnessed it first hand, I would be slow to believe it myself, but in the words of the late, great Wendy Bagwell, this is a fact with my hand up.

There are those who think that squirrels are just cute, energetic little things that are happy all the time. They labor under the misconception that squirrels, while perhaps a bit shy around humans are basically harmless and the only thought that goes through their acorn-sized mind is where to find the next nut.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Squirrels are devious, destructive beasts who are capable of distinguishing between different types of firearms, planning coordinated attacks and are intent upon inflicting bodily harm on humans.

A few days ago, my two sons and I went deer hunting on my grandmother’s farm. It was a nice fall afternoon and the total absence of deer was counter-balanced by the serenity of the great outdoors. The boys were located in their hunting spots and I was comfortably situated in my hunting chair with my feet propped up on a fallen log. Life was good and I was completely relaxed.

The tranquility was suddenly shattered by an explosion of shrill chattering and barking. A squirrel had completed a recon mission on my situation and decided that I did not pose a threat to him. He doubtlessly knew this from the orange vest I was wearing and the deer rifle that I was holding (I told you they could tell the difference between guns). He jumped from behind a tree and engaged in a rush of angry monologue. I am not fluent in Squirrelese, but I had no doubt of the content of his words. He was cussing me out. This is not unusual, it has happened to me, and many other woodsmen, before.

While the first squirrel was continuing his diatribe against me, I began to hear objects striking the ground close behind me. I turned around in my seat and craned my neck to look up in the hickory tree behind me. Another squirrel had snuck up behind me while I was distracted by his partner and was bombing me with nuts. He would scamper along a limb until he found a nut that hadn’t yet fallen, pull the nut off the branch and launch it in my direction. He fired six or seven shots. He didn’t just chunk them randomly, I could see him actually taking aim, adjusting for the wind and elevation. The only thing that kept me from getting hit was the fact that he was too weak to throw them far enough away from the tree. Had he been as big as even a fox squirrel or raccoon, I would undoubtedly have knots on my head now.

So be careful, my friends, next time you are around these scampering, chattering, bombarding menaces. They may look cute and charming, but they are probably just on a recon mission to find the best way to attack you.